During a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) introduced Tom Kleeh, President Donald Trump’s nominee for District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. Senator Capito recommended Kleeh to the president and met with him yesterday prior to today’s hearing.

If approved by the U.S. Senate, Kleeh will replace Federal Judge Irene Keeley who announced her retirement from the bench.

“Since President Trump nominated Tom, I have been impressed by the amount of support he has received in all corners of West Virginia’s legal community,” Senator Capito said. “His nomination has also been praised by those who have been on the opposite side and practiced against him … That widespread respect speaks volumes, I think, about Tom’s professionalism.”

If confirmed, Thomas S. Kleeh of West Virginia will serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.

Kleeh is a member of Steptoe & Johnson PLLC, where he has practiced as a litigator in the firm’s labor and employment group representing private- and public-sector clients for the last nineteen years. During that time, he has litigated hundreds of employment law and general litigation matters before federal and state courts and administrative agencies.

Since 2015, Kleeh has also served as staff counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee of the West Virginia Senate, where he has presented legislation and advised the Senate on a wide range of issues. He earned his B.S.B.A. from West Virginia University, graduating summa cum laude, and his J.D. from the West Virginia University College of Law, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served as editor-in-chief of the West Virginia Law Review.